Like it or not, CyanogenMod is one of the most popular and widely supported custom Android ROMs. With other projects you're lucky to see a handful of devices supported, but CM runs on dozens of phones and tablets. Users of those devices may soon have some new goodies to play with when the CM team releases the new Cyanogen Platform SDK, allowing app developers to integrate with various features in CyanogenMod.

The Cyanogen Platform SDK will eventually support features like screen-off gestures, proxies, and more. Right now it looks like custom quick settings tiles will be the first part of the API made available. So, imagine you download a system monitor app in the not too distant future. It might have special integration with CyanogenMod to display stats of some sort in a quick settings tile. This is just an example I'm making up—I'm sure there are better potential uses.

Or you could (just going out on a limb here) not buy any CM or Apple device, or not install CM ROM.

Internet Guardian

Even if don't buy a CM, they will still fragment the market. If I don't buy an iPhone, they will still eat away the profits of Android OEMs and push Cos like Sony to consider quitting smartphone business. So, sorry, your advice doesn't help much

txkssnapper

How is CM pushing Sony to quit the smartphone business? As far as I'm concerned Sony basically doesn't exist in North America because their phones don't get released here. They also happen to be one of the OEM's that support the custom rom scene the most.

Joe

Hold on -- why are you blaming Apple here when Microsoft is the one eating away at Android profits using patent threats?

Brin

Original comment much!!

pepe

Having CM means root, which means ad blockers so no revenue from ads.
Payed apps are a no-go as no one is gonna buy an app which runs only on cm.
Why a developer should write an app for CM then?

Rahul Vyas

LOL,WTF ??

Adrynalyne

He was pretty clear with what he said. CM is anti-Developer in that respect. Devs gotta eat too, otherwise ads wouldn't exist.

Its good for enthusiasts though, or those who have found success in the root app niche.

Android Developer

CM doesn't mean no ads, just like root doesn't mean no ads.
It only means you can do it, with the knowledge/tools of how to do it.
Same goes for paid apps, which I'm sure pirated copied exist even for non CM/rooted phones.
Piracy always exists. IAP reduces it a bit as apps frequently become free, so there is less interest from users to get the pirated apps this way.

Adrynalyne

Which is why this will not appeal to a developer looking to monetize their apps.

Android Developer

How so? How is it any different than any other rom, either published on XDA, or made by OEMs and carriers ?
In all of them you can root, and do anything you wish.

Adrynalyne

The SDK is for this rom. Which means it will attract enthusiasts, not dedicated application developers, again for the reason I said: they want to monetize their apps.

Root users are so far in the minority, it is laughable. Do you really think a serious app developer is going to limit themselves to such a minority (even moreso if its just CM), of which many WILL block their ads?

As I said, this is good news for enthusiasts and those that have carved out a niche in the root market and thats about it.

Android Developer

But this is what I already wrote:
root users are those that can block ads. CM has nothing to do with it.
And, about the SDK, this is no different than SDKs that other OEMs provide (like the S-Pen of Samsung).
Why do you say to limit ? Using the SDK doesn't mean your app will work only on CM. It's just a feature. If the app identifies it can use the feature (meaning it runs on CM), it can enable it.
It's not that the app will work only on CM, and it doesn't require root.
You are not limiting yourself to anything. Only enriching the app and giving it an extra feature for CM users.

Sven Dubbeld

I'm not completely sure as I'm still looking in to it a bit, but it looks like you can just add it as a library to an existing app, so your app runs on any ROM but has some extra features when it's running on CM.

Nicolas Johnson

I mean... I'd buy a CM only app, or pay for additional functionality granted by that app/ROM combo. Just the same as I paid for advanced features of Amplify and Greenify (xposed mods). I think enthusiasts might certainly be a smaller pool, but perhaps a more dedicated one when it comes to paying for wanted features. Hell, I'd give CM $10 right now if they'd get Live Display working correctly with my OPO, or $50 if they had an OS level app in the settings menu to deal with kernel values that's as granular as Synapse (I totally get why this would be a pain for them)

Brin

You realise I could get root on a stock ROM :)

sweenish

This is actually a good move. Cyanogen Inc. will do something stupid to negate any goodwill this might bring.

Yes, I know they're separate entities. But they are also symbiotic.

ConCal

They need to fire their CEO.

Błażej

As much as I enjoy using CyanogenMod I still agree with you.

platynumx

I stopped using cyanogenmod Roms (or Roms using cm base code) when their CEO started shooting his mouth off and making everything cm related seem extra douchey.

knowthedifference

You stopped using "CyanogenMod" because the "Cyanogen" CEO said things?

platynumx

Reread the last bit of my original post . also I know cyanogen (os or inc) == cyanogenmod. ... There's just some convoluted shared codebase.

MKB4k

Should Steve Kondick should be next ceo?

Nicolas Johnson

Lotta cyanogen hate here.. it is clear that this is part of the open source bit of cyanogen, not CyanogenOS? Sounds a bit like xposed but integrated into the rom. Sure, why not. There is competition to the theme engine put out by CM, why not competition on modular ROM modifications?

chickenfactory

CM as open source is fine to me. It's the incorporation part that I don't like. First off, the CEO should shut his trap, not saying something stupid in the future. It's getting annoying...

Wesley Modderkolk

"Right now it looks like custom quick settings tiles will be the first part of the API made available. "
Call me crazy(or better, don't) but that sounds like a bad idea. would open up apps to just spam their crap there, which makes QS not so Quick anymore.

QS is a system thing and shouldn't be customizable by apps, same goes for all other system elements.

txkssnapper

I assume that you would have to enable the tile to appear through the quick settings menu in settings. You can already customize which tiles appear and assuming its opt in it isn't a bad feature.

My name is….

Options never hurt nobody.

Đức Thành

This line of comments is making me question my sanity. I swear I've seen a comment thread extremely similar, if not identical to this before. A case of déjà vu I guess.

Stemro

"If you don't like options get an iPhone" yada yada are ridiculous sentiments that come up every time someone criticizes something Android.

Also every time Cyanogen is mentioned people doing forget to chime in and say they hate them because of some dumb things they said.

Đức Thành

Oh so that's not me going crazy, but people being dumb as usual. Thanks for the clarification.

Daniel Amantea

Go get an iPhone then

JeanClaude

Cool, that Quick Settings API should have been in Android a long time ago.

Even as an end user, I thought that it's confusing to use, as the behavior is inconsistent both with the single/long clicking, and which toggle is shown when (Android decides for you which ones to show).

Jonathan Daggar

It's five months into the year and we haven't seen a cyanogenmod 12 snapshot, while the number of half-considered, half-finished projects mushrooms. There is more and more reason to say cyanogen inc. is detrimental to the public cyanogenmod project. I am perfectly aware of the difference and overlap of the two... and the latter seems to be dragging the community down.

txkssnapper

Didn't they make a statement saying that snapshots would be ending and the goal would be to make nightlies a stable channel? I can't remember for sure, it might have been that they stopped nightlies when cm12 work started. In which case considering the oneplus one is still rolling out its official update I wouldn't be surprised if they waited another month to release the first snapshot of cm12.1.

Stemro

Not exactly. You're confusing something. CyanogenMod used to have stable releases (as in releases literally labelled stable), the last one was CM 10.2.1. Wth CM11, they instead decided to only have monthly M snapshots as the more stable releases. With CM12 it was only last month where they made an announcement, saying they will have a "proper release" of CM12.0 followed by 12.1 some time after. According to what they said that release was supposed to come out in April, but alas they missed that mark and haven't yet said anything else.

Though some nightlies on some devices can be quite stable they can be quite stable, in general nightlies aren't really meant to be stable - just have the latest code.

Maybe they might make a permissions api for Privacy Guard. This might be a slippery slope though because I don't want apps to start refusing to work if they get a permission denial from the API. In that case I hope you can deny permissions without letting an app know that you denied them.

Bala

either its a master move or cyanogenmod stabbing themselves harder

Jacob Groß

Can someone build a Quick Settings Disable/Enable Sync-Tile? It is gone since 5.x.x :{